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Published: January 5th 2010
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Quick girls ... Run!
Charlotte, Sarah and Amy are chasing the waves ... and then running away! Day 251 - Rye, Mornington Peninsula
We weren’t very bright and sparkly when we woke this morning, bit unexpected really but perhaps the late nights and long drives are catching up with us. We’d better rectify that with some long walks and plenty of fresh air!
The girls were already up and waiting for somebody to plug in the Wii so they can have a play on their new games. Darryl helps out to ensure they’re soon up and running. I worked on some more of the blogs, we’ve got a bit behind with the uploading again as there’s been quite a lot going on. It’s no harder than keeping a diary everyday and we know it will be so worth while when we come to look back on our journey in the future so we’re keen to keep it going.
We both had a few games on the Wii until the girls got bored and started creating a cubby house out of their pillows and duvets - refreshing isn’t it! I love that even with all this technology about, kids are still happy enough to play with the boxes that it comes with or the covers from
their beds! Glorious!
For a break from the blog I had a go at Wii tennis which I’m pretty good at, then I challenged myself at baseball which didn’t go quite so well! They don’t have Wii Fit but there is some sort of fitness test on the game that we were playing so I had a go at that but was horrified to see it calculate my age as 55! I demand a recount and had a go at cycling instead! We’re not sure we can actually bring ourselves to buy one of these when we get home but we both love it so we might just have to!
While all this is going on Darryl is out the back chatting to Helen about our trip and what plans we have for the future. It’s always a very relaxed atmosphere at the beach house which is great because if we’ve learned anything on this trip it’s that being relaxed is a very nice feeling. In fact we consider it another luxury item and one we’ll relish to the end.
With breakfast done and everyone ready for the day the six of us, Grant, Anna, Charlotte, Amy,
myself and Darryl take off for a walk along Gunamatta Beach. It’s heralded, apparently, as one of the worlds most dangerous beaches and in an instant you can understand why that might be. The waves are full on and the DHL Surf Rescue flags indicate them watching the smallest nano stretch of it. Nevertheless there are plenty of families, fishermen and surfers down here enjoying the tumbling waves and the outlook of the beautiful ocean.
We’re sure that we’ve been here before and if I get the chance I’ll have a look for the photo to prove it! Today we walked in an easterly direction until the rocks dictated that we started climbing, just a little bit, with our bare feet as we’d left all our thongs in the car. Everyone managed though, the girls, Anna and the man with feet like the locals - Grant! Rock climbing in bare feet is not my favourite activity but I’m getting better and of course Mr Howells was off and practically running. The walk gave us great views over the coastal cliffs.
Down on the beach we came across a sad sight, one of our feathered friends had met an
untimely death and lay on the sand. At the time we weren’t 100% sure whether it was an Albatross or not, Dar thought it was and I hadn’t got a clue. I thought Albatross were mythical creatures, apparently not! Some twitcher I would make.
We wandered the beach chatting to the fishermen as we went. Nobody had caught a thing but we were still a bit envious of them all down here, unfortunately we hadn’t thought to bring our rods so all we could do was watch.
The girls had their bathers on and it seemed a shame for them to be staying so dry, chasing the waves was a great game to play although the only one to get a really soaking was me! We did have a great seaweed throwing competition though, not really sure who won that and I tried my best to get the 'Button Song' going but the girls gave up when it came to the bit where you have to stick your bum out! I'll try the pirate song next!
We popped back into the beach house and found Helen home alone so whilst the girls had a shower myself and
Dar enjoyed an impromptu painting class! We’re lucky enough to have a personal Helen White watercolour at home in the UK already and we love watching her working on different pieces so she returned our enthusiasm with a quick lesson. Dar got to paint a leaf and I got to paint part of a tree which Helen later finished off and it was just awesome! She’s offered to paint one of our favourite photos to go home with which we’re very excited about.
The Blairgowrie Café was calling, one of the girls favourite things to do when they’re at the beach house is to grab a Baby Chino. It’s a great treat for us and with such lovely company we really enjoy it, especially the boys when they work out there’s more to see than just milkshakes and coffees. The place really is a breast apart!
The ladies take a wander through a couple of the nearby shops while the menfolk and the girls check out the butchers for supplies to feed us all with.
Bill made it home victorious after a great days sailing. He was crewing for a friend in a race and they won,
good on you! It was pretty tough stuff out there with the boat keeling right over at one stage due to the rough seas.
Dinner was top notch with Grant and Darryl working together to great the biggest mess Helen has ever seen in the kitchen! It was all worth it though when they served up barbequed oysters with bacon followed by three pasta variations (seafood, hot salami and tomato). Yum! We really can’t grumble on this trip, we have eaten very well!
With the glorious sounds of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo coming through the TV we chatted happily until we remembered the DVD we’d rented earlier especially for the boys. ‘Inglorious Bastards’ stars Brad Pitt and is directed by Quentin Tarantino, with a combination like that we shouldn’t go far wrong. We dragged Grant inside but then we were interrupted (in a nice way) by the arrival of Jordan (number one son of Anna and Grant) and his girlfriend Therese. There were hugs all around and belated Happy New Year wishes but then they too joined us to watch the movie although Grant by this time had escaped out back with Bill.
With the subtitles on,
initially for Therese as she’s Swedish but they soon came in handy for the rest of us, we settled down to watch the film. It’s very good, very funny, very Tarantino and by that I mean you should expect the unexpected because that’s exactly what you get!
We hadn’t put the film on until 9pm so it was late, late, late when it finished so we left Grant and Bill outside, still chatting happily away and went to bed.
Tomorrow will see us back on the road again so we did a quick tidy up of our things in order to make it a bit easier and then hit the sack.
Dar and Sar
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